Parents Called Racist, Removed From Bus For Singing Daughter A Song

Singing the Peppa Pig theme song to your child on a public bus may get you thrown off and called a racist.

A couple says it happened to them.

Nick Barnfield and Sarah Cleaves were riding the bus with their 15-month-old autistic daughter and singing the theme song to Peppa Pig to try and cheer her up.

The parents claim a fellow passenger, who was reportedly wearing a hijab, approached them upset over their choice of song.

“A lady came up to us and quite aggressively started telling us we were irresponsible parents and that we were being racist singing the song,” Barnfield said.

The Daily Mail has an unconfirmed report that the woman took offense to the snorting sounds made in the song, and thought they were a reference to Islam forbidding pork.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

The upset woman also allegedly approached the bus driver.

“She went up to the bus driver and told him we were being racist towards her,” Barnfield said. “The driver came up to me and said we had to get off the bus or the police would have to come.”

Barnfield found the entire situation humiliating.

“We were really embarrassed, ashamed and upset and we hadn't done anything wrong, just trying to make our little girl happy, but people were looking at us as if we had done something wrong,” Barnfield said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

“He just said: ‘Go now, otherwise you’ll hold up all the passengers and no-one will be happy,’” Barnfield added.

The driver of the bus disputes the claim that allegations of racism were involved, reports Metro. An investigation into the incident by the bus company has begun.

“The investigation is ongoing but we have viewed CCTV footage,” Brandon Jones, head of external relations at the First bus group in Rotherham, England, said. “It does show the customer leaving the bus at the location he describes and it does show a conversation between a lady customer on the bus and the driver, and the driver speaking to the customer.”

“We’re speaking with our driver and with the customer to clarify the circumstances in which they left the bus. At this point I’m not in a position to confirm that they were forced to leave,” Jones said. “It is clear they left the vehicle. The driver responded to a customer complaint on the service. There was a single complaint from a passenger, she was an Asian lady.”

“The driver told us he heard no reference to racism but we are investigating the incident and have not yet drawn a conclusion,” Jones added.